


Working With Witches

by Tuiteyfruity



Series: Charming Politics Chronicles [2]
Category: 18th & 19th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE RPF, American Revolution RPF, Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 10:50:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5964568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuiteyfruity/pseuds/Tuiteyfruity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow up to what happens with shrunken hamilton! What is with Jefferson and Madison being wizards??</p>
            </blockquote>





	Working With Witches

This was quite possibly the most awkward meeting the President had ever had with members of his cabinet, and also James Madison, who for once was not the smallest person in the room. He might be dwarfed by the Washington and Jefferson, but compared to the now 6 inch tall Hamilton, he felt like a giant. It was Madison who had assumed care for Hamilton, since the treasury secretary made it clear that he would not tolerate Jefferson touching him, and Madison couldn’t really blame him, since it was Jefferson’s enchantment that shrunk him. 

Hamilton stood on the president’s desk, closer to the president than to Madison and Jefferson, glaring at Jefferson, but holding his tongue. When he heard the others talk, they sounded low and booming, he could only imagine his voice now sounded high and shrill. 

“And, this happened when exactly?” Washington asked Jefferson, completely fearless in the face of a man who had the power to magically transform others at will. In fact, Jefferson looked a bit nervous to Madison.

“Last night,” Jefferson supplied. 

Washington closed his eyes and took a breath. If Jefferson had a counter-enchantment he would have used it by now, or Hamilton would be demanding that he order Jefferson to use it. 

“Who else know about this?” he said, opening his eyes and looking at all three men. 

“No one,” said Madison. 

Hamilton had refused to go home last night, staying instead with Madison, who sent word to Hamilton’s family that he would not be coming home that night. Together they had tried to do a little research into reversing this, pouring through Madison’s private spell books, but to no avail. They had not told Jefferson about this. Still, with no counter-enchantment all they could do was wait for this to wear off. Washington seemed to deduce this. 

“How long will this last?” 

Jefferson swallowed visibly.

“How long will this last Mr Jefferson?” Washington repeated, on the edge of raising his voice, “Or is the esteemed society so negligent and irresponsible as to develop and spread the knowledge of enchantments that have no counters?”

“Of course not!” Jefferson said, gripping his staff, “I only hesitated because I am unsure of how much power went in, it will wear off, but I cannot estimate the duration as of now.” 

He didn’t want to admit that the combination of a splitting headache and anger at Hamilton had gotten the better of him, causing him to cast without first establishing the parameters in his mind. As Head Wizard he took pride in the precision of his casting, and this was anything but precise. The look Madison shot him told him that his friend was very aware of that. 

“But, your excellency, it is unlikely to be more than a week, I would have noticed a significant drain otherwise.” 

“Have you apologized to Mr. Hamilton?”

“No he has not!” Hamilton spoke for the first time. All eyes turned to him, but he did not cower. 

“Because you won’t let me,” Jefferson 

“Use of magic on other persons without their consent is _illegal_ “

“You are not hurt,” Jefferson said indignantly. “And as if you have never used magic on others.”

“I’m not a wizard, enhancements for humans take set up and time, and ingredients, they can only be expedient upon be re-casting on the same individual. It’s pretty much impossible for me to just, enchant someone, because I couldn’t control myself. The law exists because wizards” he spat the word, “don’t operate under such restrictions.”

This would all be much easier if Hamilton would just accept an apology, even if what Jefferson had done was unfortunately, very illegal. 

“So what, you want to throw me in jail? Pay a fine?”

“Would you rather I make this incident known to the public?” Hamilton threatened. He had been too scared and angry to think straight last night, now he realized he had some power over Jefferson. 

"Nobody is to do anything," said Washington," until both of you have calmed down enough to discuss this like reasonable gentleman.” 

Hamilton and Jefferson had started to talk as if no one else was witness, it was awkward as well as irritating and it made him feel like a babysitter instead of a commander in chief. 

“Secretary Jefferson, Representative Madison, you are dismissed, Hamilton and I have things to discuss.”

“Sir, don’t let him get away with-” Hamilton didn’t get a chance to finish his thought as Washington picked him up without warning and stood up. 

It wasn’t the most respectful move, and Hamilton shaking in his hands set a heavy feeling in his gut. Jefferson and Madison were looking at him a bit shocked then they collected themselves and left. Only then did Washington look at Hamilton, who looked back initially with his eyes wide and terrified. Washington was no stranger to people being scared of him, but not Hamilton, and sure enough a second later the look had transformed to mild fury. Washington held Hamilton up to his eyes.

“My priority right now is to try and fix this, not punish Jefferson, I need my treasury secretary to be at his full size,” he said softly. “He might be head wizard, and thus pressing legal charges on him would incur the wrath of the society, but even the society won’t let him off easy.”

“If they made their internal politics more transparent I could have confidence in that,” Hamilton sighed.

Part of him didn't believe they even had a working system after the society broke off from the Order of Merlin. They pretty much cut contact with the world for the duration of the war, when their services would have been most useful. Then once the war was won they suddenly appeared again, claiming to have been dealing with the Order, though they had no evidence of this. Britain's own wizards had caused a lot of trouble for the continental army. Hamilton refused to believe they had done anything that contributed to the American victory.

“But I have to agree I have no desire to just sit on my ass and wait for god knows how long until I change back. Did you have something in mind, sir?”

Washington smiled, “Wizards aren’t the only ones with powerful magic, they are simply the most loud about it and like to be involved in things. I’m taking you home, no not your home, my home, perhaps Martha could be of some help to us.”

The brilliance of the idea, how had Hamilton forgotten about Washington’s witch wife! Wizards might have spells and enchantments, but witches had those and hexes and potions, there could be a solution to this after all. 

\----

“I can’t break this enchantment” she coughed. 

Or not. 

Mrs. Washington had performed all sorts of scanning spells and tests until the room was so saturated with smoke and various diffused ingredients, she had used everything from thyme to powdered hen’s teeth, it was hard to see and breathe. Washington went to open a window. Hamilton

Mrs Washing picked Hamilton up off the floor, which had all sorts of writing that had been erased and rewritten over the many years, and set him on a table. He was in very low spirits. "Now Mr. Hamilton, I will have none of this nonsense please! Do not look so disheartened,” 

Martha Washington did not look like a witch, of course, traditional dress had gone out of fashion in the last century, at least in the states. But it was more than her dress, it was the way she held herself and talked. Unlike wizards, witches had informal community, not an organized institution, most of them kept to themselves in small towns and rarely married, let alone marry people like George Washington. 

“There is one thing I haven’t tried, I just have to go to my garden,”she coughed again, “or maybe we all should go. Ah, but I also need something from my room, my potion book and bag.”

Washington left them to fetch the items. 

When they left the room a black cat suddenly appeared, having previously been absent from the proceedings.

“And where on earth have you been, Hamilton,” Martha chided the cat, which sniffed.

It still bothered Hamilton that Mrs. Washington’s cat shared his name. 

“You’ve met him before, you should remember Mr. Hamilton, don’t pretend you don’t. No you can’t eat him, he’s not a mouse. I don’t care if you were joking this is not a joking matter.”

The cat blinked and leaped onto her shoulder to stare down and sniff at the now smaller Hamilton sitting in her cupped hands. Hamilton had never liked cats, and the fact that he was the size of a mouse did not help matters. The cat displayed its fangs under the guise of a disinterested yawn. 

“Enough of that, if you aren’t going to be helpful the least you can be is not make this harder.”

“What in your garden are we looking for?” Hamilton asked, he couldn’t hear what the cat was saying, and also wanted to not think about the cat. 

“I cultivate many plants with magical properties, I like to keep them fresh, fresher ingredients make for stronger potions.”

“And you think you can make a potion to fix Hamilton?” Washington had caught up with them.

“I already said I can’t break the enchantment, and what I’m thinking I would never normally advise, but we can stack effects, using a potion.”

Magic transformations never could override another unless it also broke the previous, they always added on whatever the transformation was supposed to be. Hamilton recalled reading that somewhere. The book had gone on to give an example of a spell that made one grow wings put on a person who was already enchanted to be purple would leave them purple, but with wings. 

They reached the garden, which was overgrown but the growth was in sections. Some of the plants were clearly magical, with the most vibrant colors and shapes, but others looked mundane. Those were likely even more powerful. 

Martha handed Hamilton over to her husband in exchange for the book. After leafing through it quickly she started to search through a section of plants in the back. There had been no hesitation, she knew what she was looking for. When she had what she wanted she moved to another section, closer to the entrance, which was large and contained one plant, she picked a few leaves, then returned to the anxious men. 

“My bag, if you would dear.”

She opened it and took out a set of scales, a crystal mortar and pestle, and a vial of clear liquid. Carefully she weighted the leaves and the other ingredient, which turned out to be mushrooms, before adding them to the mortar. She mixed in the leaves, liquid, and mushrooms as best she could as Hamilton and Washington looked on silently. Then she held the bowl in her hand. It started to boil and became a murky yellow as the chunks of mushroom and leaves melted. This she poured into a new vial. 

“That should do it.” she said proudly. 

“What is is?” asked Hamilton

“It should be a growth potion. I’ve never done it before, never needed to.”

“If it had a chance of making me my normal size, I’m willing to trust your abilities,” said Hamilton, “Do I have to drink all of it? I don’t think I can at my current size?”

“No no, only take a few drops!” she drew out a thimble from a pocket and aliquoted a small amount of liquid, handing it to Hamilton. 

Washington set him down on the ground and stepped back as Hamilton drank deeply. It was nasty, but there was no painful transformation process, a second later he was his original height. He was so happy he might cry. 

“Mrs President you are a lifesaver, thank you”

“My wife is amazing,” said Washington, with even more pride, “It’s good to have you back to normal. 

“You both flatter me, that thing only lasts a few hours, you have to keep taking it, and only a few drops! Remember it’s increasing your current size, you aren’t back to normal.”

“Only a few hours?” said Hamilton. Then he would have to tell Eliza what happened, he couldn’t keep taking it throughout the night and shrinking again while in bed would be embarrassing at the very least. 

It was still better than nothing, and it certainly was worth it to see the look of complete astonishment on Jefferson’s face the next day. 

[to be continued!]

**Author's Note:**

> One more part after this!
> 
> Also don't say "the title says witches and there was only one witch", the Enchanted Forest Chronicles book 2 is Searching for Dragons and they were only searching for one dragon. This title is specifically referencing that. 
> 
> -Oh and little note that doesn't really matter: Martha Washington really doesn't like Jefferson, and in this AU it's partially because he's a wizard. Wizards hate to generate their own magic and love to steal it from others, their staves do it automatically. It's hard to take a witch's magic but they can feel the constant pull whenever a wizard is near. It's like a fly buzzing in the ear. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, please leave a comment!


End file.
